Tim: With their song Closer, The Chainsmokers were responsible for a large quantity of the most awful lyrics in 2016; how will they start 2017?
Tim: Well, parents/terrace doesn’t get stuff off to a great start, but compared to closer/Rover/Boulder/older, it’s award-winning stuff, so I’ll forgive it.
Tom: “If we go down, then we go down together.” Hurr. Anyway, interesting use of what appears to be a 90s vocoder effect there.
Tim: Yes, interesting is the right word, because as for the rest of it, my feelings are very much as they were with their first, although much faster. I could understand why people liked it, it took me a few months, but eventually I started getting with it.
Tom: Strangely, I actually took a liking to this, which given that my default reaction to any new song lately is “meh”, I’d consider quite an achievement.
Tim: Oh, I’m pleased for you. I wasn’t keen at all at the start, partly because of that vocoder, but mostly because of what seemed to be a complete lack of chorus. Once the female vocal hit, though, it started making a bit more sense, and the further along the song got, the more I liked it, and I’m even willing to forgive their rhyming ‘clever’ with ‘together’ and ‘better’.
Tom: And they’ve gone for a traditional melody and harmony line in those vocals, too, which — and I hadn’t realised this — is something I actually miss a bit. And those wonderfully retro drums out of the middle eight don’t go amiss either.
Tim: Guess it’s got to be good, then.